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Science Friday

Doctor Burnout, International Doctors. June 19, 2020, Part 1

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Life Sciences, Wnyc, Science, Friday, Natural Sciences

4.4 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2020

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A Crisis Of Health In Healthcare Workers Content Warning: This segment contains talk of suicide. For help for people considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 Depression and anxiety are extremely common in healthcare workers, and they have higher rates of suicide than the general public—doctors in particular are twice as likely to die by suicide. That’s when the world is operating normally. Now, healthcare workers are also dealing with a devastating pandemic, and the uncertainty surrounding a new disease. And some healthcare workers are using what little emotional labor they have left to advocate in the streets and online for racial justice.  Joining Ira to talk about burnout in the healthcare industry are Steven McDonald, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, and Kali Cyrus, a psychiatrist and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Insights From International Doctors On The Frontlines Of The Pandemic   In March, governors Andrew Cuomo in New York and Gavin Newsome in California put out a call for medical professionals to come to their states to help with the COVID-19 crisis. Many of those on the frontlines aren’t just from out of the state, but from out of the country. International medical professionals are estimated to make up a quarter of working doctors in the U.S.   Journalist Max Blau talks about the role of international doctors in the U.S. medical system and how they have been affected during the pandemic. Then international resident physicians Quinn Lougheide and Muhammad Jahanzaib Anwar share stories from aiding COVID-19 patients in Bronx, New York. PG&E Guilty Plea Sets A Precedent For Climate Change Culpability   In 2018, the devastating Camp Fire wildfire swept through northern California, killing 84 people. Utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E, was deemed to be responsible for the spark that caused the fire. This week, the company pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the deaths, marking the first case of its kind. The decision sets a precedent for future legal battles over holding companies accountable for climate change, and how that burden should be split.  Vox staff writer Umair Irfan joins Ira to talk about the PG&E case, plus more on why a second round of COVID-19 lockdowns might not work as well as the first shelter in place orders.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is Science Friday. I'm Iroflato. A bit later in the hour, job burnout in health care workers.

0:06.8

We'll talk about taking care of the people who are taking care of us. But first, there's still a lot we don't know about COVID-19.

0:15.1

And doctors are finding recovered patients aren't always out of the woods after they beat the infection.

0:21.3

We're just learning about the long-term complications inflicting some of the survivors.

0:26.9

Here to talk about that and other science stories from the week is Umer Erfan, a staff

0:31.7

writer at Vox in Washington.

0:33.6

Welcome back, Umair.

0:35.4

Thanks for having me.

0:36.6

Let's start with a story you reported for Vox, and that's a second round of COVID-19 lockdowns

0:42.4

might not work as well as the first time around.

0:46.2

Why is that?

0:47.3

Well, there are a number of reasons at play.

0:48.9

The big one is just that we're in a very different stage of the pandemic right now.

0:52.8

Back when the first lockdowns went into effect, we were seeing tens or dozens of cases per day in states, and now we're

0:58.2

seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of cases per day. So snapping those restrictions back

1:02.6

into a place would take a longer time for those numbers to start dropping again. The other factor

1:07.7

is that once you start locking people in place, there's a lot higher chance household transmission, basically, people transmitting it to people in their own families.

1:15.7

And there's also likely to be a fair amount more transmission among the essential workers.

1:19.6

So there's likely to be a longer time for this curve to come down.

1:23.2

And then finally, people are pretty tired.

1:25.0

I mean, they're fatigued by these measures, by having to wear masks or to, you know, keep social distance. And it's likely that people are not going to be as compliant this time around.

1:34.2

I know. Here in New York, we're barely getting out of the first lockdown. What places are considering a second round?

...

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